18 replies to this topic

[Dover]

TFTD, for sure. I can't help but feel that I'm playing a rigged game of chess in XCOM2. The aliens just plain shoot straighter is my guess.

[Oldblue153]

No Brainer - TFTD

[Zombie]

Lobstermen. Nuff said.

- Zombie

[Blehm 98]

Apocolypse is by far the hardest for me. It is the only one that i can't beat on the easiest level, TFTD and UFO defense i can beat on veteran, but not apocolypse

[NKF]

Too hard Blehm?

We must fix that.

Head on over to the Apocalypse section and start asking for help on aspects of the game you're not doing well with. We'll help set you right in no time, or transform into custard trying.

- NKF

[JoeJoe]

isnt tftd the same as ufo?

i mean yeah everything looks different, and has differnt names, but are the specs of the game really that much different?

[NKF]

It's more of the different mixture of the stats that make it a different game.

A lot of your starting weapons have been toned down a bit (except the Gas Cannon, which is actually a great upgrade over the Heavy Cannon) and some of them are nerfed when used on land, along with your floatation ability. The aliens have been toughened up considerably. The lobstermen for example get ridiculous damage resistance against the major damage types.

Otherwise it's basically a reskinned original with a couple of upgrades that makes the original look like a walk in the park.

- NKF

Edited by NKF, 11 February 2006 - 02:33 PM.

[Snakeman]

I haven't played TFTD beyond its demo, but I think from what I have seen, Apoc is harder for me, mainly with regards to the interface it had. After playing it for some time after I first got it, I longed for the first game's simpler interface (well, the battlescape one at any rate).

[Blehm 98]

Yeah, the ONLY thing that hurts me on TFTD is Tasoth ship missions. Those are awful, because they get Tasoths, and the nautilus thingies (i had a xarquid kill 6 guys in one turn, and take 10 hits from an xcomutil modified heavy guass)

Lobstermen suck, but usually its the tasoth ship missions that give me the highest rate of casualties. Tentaculats on the second part of artifact sites are the only part that will kill me

[Pherdnut]

isnt tftd the same as ufo?

i mean yeah everything looks different, and has differnt names, but are the specs of the game really that much different?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

All the tech is ultimately the same, but the research is more demanding, frequently requiring not just an alien with a certain job designation but also the proper species to unlock certain tech trees. Also, the allien types are by and large much nastier, the UFO designs are tougher to crack, the "torepedo launcher" (TFTD missile launcher) doesn't work on terror missions that take place outside of the water, and the levels can frequently be excessively large. The only thing in your favor is that grenades were made indestructable, making it possible to drop more than one on an alien at a time, which is crucial when dealing with the excessively heavy armored Lobstermen. It's strange to me that for all the effort that went into making it a prettier and more challenging game, they couldn't come up with their own technology and weaponry. Aside from a 3 melee weapons that are simply upgrades to one another, there is no new tech or research topic that isn't somehow analagous to the first game.

Anyway, if you haven't played TFTD and you're a fiend for the other two games, it's probably worth checking out. Disappointing and buggy but not entirely without merit. The new critters are interesting and in spite of being analagous the technologies are more or less effective than they were in the first game, which provides some new challenge. It's also a pretty goodlooking game for its time. Much prettier than X-Com even though the menus and geoscape are basically the same.

[Oldblue153]

You really think it was visually more appealing than the original?

Don't get me wrong I like the game and Im not trying to argue I just find that surprising,.. I play TFTD more than the original cause its so much tougher but I find the color palette rather bland compared to the Original, and I MUCH preferred the looks of the original weapons over TFTD (blaster vs dispruptor etc etc etc).

[Blehm 98]

I always thought that TFTD weapons looked more real...

I don't know, i just think TFTD's probably the best, just those lobstermen can be tough

[Oldblue153]

I've come to the conclusion that TFTD simply cannot be defeated with conventional weaponry - Case in point Lobstermen.

Got to a terror ship mission the double headers Had lobster boys and Biodrones

My crew was relativly good with a couple sharpshooter and varios others all loaded with Heavy Gauss (Upgraded via Scotts Utilities to boot) open the doors see a Lobster-boy @ Bio-Drone OK its TEST TIME.

First guy shoots off an Auto-fire Plugs him once lobsterboy returns fire 1 down
Second guy shots off a volley...hits Lobsterboy 2 times Lobsterboy returns fire 2 Down
Third guy shoots off a volley hits him once no return fire..shew...still standing though.
Fourth Guy shoots off a volley hits lobster-boy 2 times FINALLY he's down ..but not out only knocked it unconcious

Total hits 6 via Heavy Gauss the Bio Drone dropped in 2 hits.

I just cant see it being done ...sigh.

[NKF]

Well, I suppose there's always the thermal tazer + magna blast grenade/GCHE shell trick for killing superhuman lobstermen with conventional weapons.

Not the most ideal weapons, but certainly possible.

No, actually, a GCHE can kill a standing superhuman lobsterman. You just don't have enough shells for it. You may end up spending the whole clip and a bit, but it can be done. This makes it impractical for missions with lots of lobstermen.

- NKF

[Jonaleth Irenicus]

(why haven't I seen this before)

TFTD by far

I've only glimpsed at UFO, but I have played TFTD and Apoc for hours on end, and I can easily say TFTD is the hardest game among them. I do not have particular problems with lobsterman (you have got to bring along Thermal Shock Launchers for those missions, as well as Thermal Tazers or melee weapons) but in TFTD there are still lots of stuff that can go wrong. Even when you know the game up and down, thru and thru, to the point where you know what aliens are hiding where in missions, there are instances where you just can't cut it. Terror sites are actual terror sites, the two parter ship missions are a blast (so many corridors...), basically any two parter mission (artefact sites and colonies) requires extreme care.

Btw, a great difficulty comes from the fact that there is no "ethereal" or "floater" bases in TFTD, all colonies are pretty much identical and have a wide variety of aliens defending them (did I mention them being two parters?). So you have to get ready for anything and everything, and you can't have all your men dealing with everyplace on the map all at once (damn narrow corridors and stupidly designed colony inner lay outs).

In Apoc things are easy because of real time combat and the fact that early game casualties are really minimum (most aliens do not start with lethal weapons, there is armour, androids are notoriously hard to lose, etc). Psionics has been dwarfed to the point it's actually optional (as opposed to game breaking, for the player and the aliens both).

When you compare the two games, in TFTD, two things bother me late game: inability to deal with Dreadgenoughts (even Manta falls short) and the Tentaculat problem (phobia). In Apoc, even hoverbikes can take care of the largest UFOs, you can basically keep aliens stranded in their own dimension at a certain tech level, and the only tactical problem is entropy missiles. And let's face it, if I (or I'd think any of us) employed the tactical depth I normally do in TFTD (moving with cover in mind, advancing slowly but carefully, throwing grenades before moving in, etc), even entropy missiles wouldn't pose little threat. Instead I just charge and let the shields take it (if they run out, agent can always run out of battle). In TFTD you always have to be on your toes, in Apoc you can charge in gun ablazing.

[Sorrow]

I vote for X-Com3. It's hardest to finish, because at certain point it becomes really boring.

[Pherdnut]

. Yeah, I don't think the alien dimension needed to be quite that long. Especially when by the time you get shields and Toxigun-Cs all battles are pretty much a foregone conclusion anyway. I would have dug it more if you actually had to infiltrate THEIR buildings and subvert their people for a change rather than simply blow a bunch of stuff up and walk out of there. And what a crappy mass transit system those aliens had. You'd think they'd make it possible to get from building A to E without having to go through B, C, and D first.